POSTGAME NOTES: Short day for Lincecum, long stretch upcoming for Giants

Tim Lincecum’s velocity went from 94 mph to 87 by the end of his short stint here Sunday, but in case anybody was worried, both Lincecum and Bruce Bochy say he wasn’t hurt. They blamed the drop on all the pitches he threw (79 through 3 innings) and that was also the reason Bochy pulled him so early. Bochy also mentioned the heat, and I tend to agree with him on that point. It was really, really hot on the field at 11:30 and I can’t imagine it got any cooler before Lincecum took the mound. By the way, this matched a start last April against Milwaukee as the shortest of Lincecum’s career.
The money quote from Lincecum: “I just felt like I was a robot out there, things weren’t moving smoothly or the way I wanted them to. I just kind of lost my stuff. I still feel strong, but I know the ball isn’t coming out the same every pitch. But that says to me it’s a mechanical thing or a timing thing. I always go back to the chalkboard between starts and try to figure it out.”

Another rough day for the Giants, but hey, pitchers like Lester are going to make this lineup look pretty foolish on occasion. Uribe is a little banged-up and needed a day off, and Andres Torres is also dealing with some nicks after fouling a couple of balls off his feet in the last week. Throw in the fact that Posey is scuffling a bit, and Sandoval still hasn’t found his rhythm, and it could get ugly as the Giants approach the All-Star break.

San Francisco doesn’t have a day off until July 12, the first day of the break, and Bochy sounded a little concerned about that after the game. HUGE stretch coming up. The Giants are now 4.5 games out of first and host the Dodgers before embarking on a 11-game trip that features the Rockies, Brewers and Strasburgs.

Some quick notes from the game:
— I’m not going to take credit for this, but … before the game I asked Bochy about the fact that the Giants hadn’t stolen a base in 18 games. What happens? Andres Torres steals second AND third in the first inning. Coincidence? Yah. Either way, the Giants could use a whole lot more of what he pulled in the first inning. Pretty much scored the only run all on his own.

— Never seen this before: with Torres on third and one out in the first, the Red Sox brought their infield in and kept the shift on for Huff. So Youkilis was in halfway between second and third, Scutaro was in on the grass near second, Ortiz was in on the grass at first, and Hall was playing rover in short-right. Talk about overthinking things. Somehow, with all the holes out there, Huff hit one right at Big Papi, but he muffed it and Torres scored. I imagine with Torres’ speed and Papi’s lack of ability at first, that would have been a run either way.

— A day later, Bochy said he thought Buster Posey did a nice job catching Madison Bumgarner Saturday, and credited Bumgarner for making adjustments. Bochy thought Bumgarner got more comfortable with his delivery and his off-speed pitches as the game went on, after he relied on his fastball almost exclusively early on.

— Bumgarner pinch-hit in the fifth and Bochy said it was because he was “saving bullets” in case the Giants mounted a comeback. He also mentioned Bumgarner’s ability with the bat as a reason for using him. Obviously, Bochy never got to use most of those “bullets.”

— Red Sox rookie Daniel Nava received a lot of attention throughout the series, but man, I’m sure the Mountain View native won’t mind getting away from the distractions of being back in the Bay Area. Nava was 1 for 11 in the series, dropping his average from .350 to .294.

— Speaking of which, the Red Sox bus took off in a hurry, and for good reason. Victor Martinez hurt his toe on his own foul tip and then fractured his left thumb on a couple of foul tips while he was catching. This two days after Dustin Pedroia broke his foot, and a day after Clay Buchholz hyperextended his left knee running the bases. Said Martinez, “We definitely want to get out of here.”

— The Giants held an event with their no-hitter throwers before the game, which I put in the notes. The time was full of good anecdotes, but this was my favorite. Here was Gaylord Perry’s take on the final innings of his no-hitter:

“After seven innings I saw the umpire as I was coming out of the dugout and he said ‘you don’t have to get it so close.’ And I didn’t really pay attention. He started giving me the outside and after eight innings he said ‘you don’t have to get it so close’ again and I realized that guy has never called a no-hitter and he wants to call one. So I didn’t come close that ninth inning!”

— Dodgers are in and I’m out: Barry Zito (7-4, 3.45) takes the hill against Chad Billingsley (4-2, 3.68). By the way, Vicente Padilla is scheduled to go Wednesday, so get your mean-mugs ready.

Andrew Baggarly

Andrew Baggarly has documented the most eventful era in San Francisco Giants baseball history, having covered the team since 2004 for th​ree major media outlets including the San Jose Mercury News and the Oakland Tribune​. This is his 20th season as a baseball writer.
​Baggarly is the author of the bestselling book, A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants, and the newly published Giant Splash: Bondsian Blasts, World Series Parades and Other Thrilling Moments By the Bay. Baggarly’s other notable life accomplishments include running as the Bratwurst in the Milwaukee Sausage Race and becoming a three-time Jeopardy! champion.

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BREAKING NEWS TO ALL THE CASUAL FANS: The Giants are not a real World Series, or even NL West contender. This team is way too flawed at the plate, in the front office & in the Managerial department.

Paul S

MLB should investigate why the Strasburgs are bypassing the Padres and pitching his Lordship vs the Giants. Could his Lordship be trying to influence the NL West race? It seems fishy that the 1st time he doesn’t go with 4 days rest is vs SD>

wfan1

Lincecum needs to dedicate himself to fitness this winter instead of doing weeds. Cain is doing better because he is in good shape anf go late into the 8th and 9th inn. Lincecum also needs to find out why his velocity is dropping.

rpuck

Ohhh fellas…

Missed this one. Good thing. I believe I need to go listen to Marty Lurie and commiserate.

This is no better than a .500 ball club. What was that early season high point? 17-10? 6 games over now ? And the schedule gets brutal…

But hey, if you can accept that and lower-expectations for this year, then whatever happens is gravy. In the mean time, hope the team can move on from Bochy and work on getting some young hitters to build an offensive core around. Get some speed. Get some clutch hitters. Solidify the bullpen, etc. and barring total financial system meltdown, the Giants will be a very competitive team and fun to watch (less torture?).

So, I believe it was the Professor who said ” sell baby, sell ”

Why not. With Juan Uribe as the de facto clean up hitter, get real, you’re not going that far in this game. Come September 1st, let’s see what guys like Neal, Ford & Kieschnick are made of.

Peace out, time to commiserate.

Mordy from Monsey

Funny how Lester didn’t seem bothered by the heat….

FIRE SABEAN

Alex good job this weekend!! You should be the full time beat writer! You asked a relatively question that a lot of us would like to know the answer to!

FIRE SABEAN

Also, no snarky remarks about “negative” fans, I like it!!!!

wan8iv

Just wondering if his father is working w/ him lately.

He’s his defacto pitching coach and knows his delivery and mechanics better than anyone.

Just hope he gets it back together again they need the starters to start getting a lot of innings again or this could be a bad stretch coming

Sabean Sucks

I can’t wait to see some of Sabean’s magic when he delivers a middle man for the bullpen. Yeah, that will do it.

Jim B.

Oh Giants fans, the sky is falling, the sky is falling! Oh, what’s to become of us? This, from a Giants fan since ’58. My god, a little bit of adversity. Don’t give up, yet. There’s most of the season still left. OMG, the sky and the velocity is dropping.

MelOtt511

I think San Jose Slim is correct. No matter how they shift this lineup, the Giants are not a playoff contender this year. But, they could be in a year if they start now to work on it. Play Posey at catcher and let him develop in that position against the speed of MLB. Play Nate every day until he shows he deserves to be a corner outfielder in this league or is playing somewhere else next year. Bring back Bowker and give him the LF job for a least a month straight and see how he hits when he isn’t coming to the park wondering if he is in the lineup. Throw MadBum every 5 days with the rest of the young starters. Keep Freddy. Have Pablo lose 40 lbs over the next 8 months. Make his pay based on his weight every month and not his batting average. That SO he had with a runner on late int he game today was embarassing for everyone in a Giants cap. Move Crawford to Fresno and bring him up in late August. Sit Molina, Rowand, Renteria. Play Uribe until Crawford is ready. Play Huff at first….he is just fun to watch. Start over guys.

ctangle

Tim Lincecum needs to cut his hair. He’s a cool weather pitcher. A lot of body heat is lost through the vascular structure of the scalp (although not close to 80% as the myth goes). That long hair is keeping his neck and head from doing their share of cooling. It was hot out there today, and it’s not even the muggy east coast!

Extra PAVS

Dude, stick around. Your a breath of fresh air. Baggs can stay on his produce hiatus, he doesn’t need to inform us of his exquisite selections of berrys and such. We like inside info on Giants baseball from an actual Giants fan. Case in point, the stolen base stat. You think Baggs would have asked Botchy about that? Heck no. He would have asked about anything but that. You know what the deal is, you called the man out, and guess what? The stolen base streak is at 1 game.

Anyways, Good Work Alex, I look forward to reading your stuff in the future.

DProfessor

The current slump of the starting rotation proves that it is the pitching—not the veterans or the managing of the Great and Powerful Wizard of Bochy—which is responsible for the team’s winning record.

Adding another 30-something veteran is like putting a band aid on a broken leg.

The “gamer” veteran line-up along its corresponding veteran-oriented manager are no longer effective strategies for creating a winning team. Not unless you have a team like the NYY who commit $180-20 million/year for top talent.

The Giants—nobody—can buy a championship with second tier, 30-something players. Not that they are bad players, but they are supporting cast members.

It is time to sell off those veteran pieces because there is no way Huff and Uribe should be getting, expensive, multi-year contract.

Torres is arbitration eligible. He should also be traded while his value is at an all-time high.

Guys like Molina and Rowand need to go by way of Garrett Atkins and other once good players—released. Stop fooling yourself, Mr. Sabean, into thinking these are good players. You sure don’t fool us.

Bdub

Kaberle for Clowe? In a heartbeat.

Bob S

I think the pitch calling sucks … they say Timmy has fallen in love with his off-speed stuff but guess what, if Molina had any cajones, he would stick down one finger and make him throw fast ball after fast ball after fast ball … THROW THE DAMN BALL, no more cutsy crap …

FIRE SABEAN

Well pollyannas, you shouted down us “negative” posters after we beat teams like Baltimore. You just saw what happened when we went up again a good Boston team. Not only have we lost 4 of our last 5, lost our last 3 series, and lost 2 of 3 to a good Boston team, but we’re also going to have our hands full with the hated Dodgers the next 3 days. What do you pollyanna posters have to say now? Good teams expose your flaws and Boston did just that.

FIRE SABEAN

correction on earlier post: relatively TOUGH question that we would like to know the answer to.

Greg

This team shouldn’t go 3 games — never mind 18 — without a stolen base. Never was their better proof that Bochy is a horrible fit for this team. I don’t know about ability, but he doesn’t have the aptitude for squeezing out runs the way this team needs to do it.

It doesn’t take speed to steal bases. It takes the aptitude for study/scouting and baseball common sense, which lead to selecting a good pitch to go on. You don’t need a player to steal 100 … several stealing 15 would make a big difference, and just executing the hit and run would be a big deal. The Giants do it fairly well, just not nearly often enough.

One glaring problem: Torres can’t bunt. How he got out of spring training without being better should be a major question for Bochy

Since ’62

The team looked completely lifeless today. Too many first pitch swinging in late innings. Hmmm, a coach’s responsibility is to coach is it not? As in any business setting, the tone is set at the top.

nightcrawler

as much as I hate to admit this, the Giants could very easily be 10+ games out of 1st by the time of the All Star break.

If this happens, I wonder if we would become sellers? I doubt it. Sabean will never lose his job and he won’t “give up” on the guys he has signed.

hibcbcbc

Bochy is clearly off the reservation at this point. He simply has no idea what he’s doing.

He commits that Buster will catch more, but continues to force Renteria and Rowand into the lineup?

Those two don’t hit. They don’t have productive at bats. They have killed us going on 3 years now.

Oh by the way…If keeping MOlina around is justified by “Timmy likes throwing to him” then hopefully we can scuttle that argument right now, as Timmy ain’t been throwing very good to Benjie for a while. Catch Buster 4 times a week, Whiteside twice, DFA or release Molina, same for Rowand. Keep Renteria for depth BUT DO NOT PLAY him more then once a week.

These are simple, simple things that Lord BigHead cannot seem to figure out.

Mr Chuckles

Man, it seems the entire team is out of gas. Our vaunted starting rotation is looking pretty pedestrian, our bullpen has crashed and burned, and all of our hitting gets rather exposed by teams with good pitching. Boy, these next two weeks are going to be ugly and tough to watch.

But that being said, “Go Giants!”

Smoothie

Although the projections will fluctuate throughout the season, AccuScore currently projects LA and SD with 86 wins, Colorado with 85 and the Giants with 83. They run 10K-20K simulations for every game to arrive at the projections. Bottom line, the NL West will be a tight race. The Giants should continue succeeding at home, but need to fix the road woes. The four games in Denver will be huge heading into the AS break. Need at least a split. That SB stat is pretty telling isn’t it?

Killblue

#1 You said it all and with very few words. This is a .500 team.

Great pitching, horrible hitting = .500

Sandoval and Molina look beat up as if this was already September. I would really like to see us give up on this season and really try to ramp up for 2011. Even if we somehow get pass the Padres, we won’t be able to get past the dodgers. Reality bites but if you think otherwise, you are blinded by false hope.

Sargento

I am NOT a Bochy fan. Fault Bochy for about three or four losses and the team is still an above average or barely over 0.500 team. Bochy manages the players he has therefore it’s up to the ownership and management to provide or assemble better players…

Panda is the heart and soul of this team
He is struggling with his plate discipline and approach
He needs some major league help
Has he made any adjustments?
40 or 50 pounds overweight and he is young
We cannot continue to allow him to fail in the clutch situations
Lower the expectations by hitting him 7th or 8th.
Fine him for swinging at pitches in the dirt or above the letters.
Hire him a full time personal trainer and chef to get him in shape
Allow another month to show some progress
If he still is not making any changes in his hitting
send him down until he gets a clue
Boston showed us how important be patient is in the box
Giant staff needs to make sure that message is delivered post haste

totalfan62

I disagree with the statement “this team is not an NL West contender”, and I think the Giants players would as well. This is a better overall team than last year (when we were in it all the way to third week of Sept), and I think you disrespect guys like Huff, Uribe, Torres, and Burrell with broad statements such as that.

We have a great starting pitching, a bullpen that has shown the ability to perform, and a strong closer. If you have good pitching, you always have a shot.

That being said, we must do a better job of closing out the games we should win, and as I keep saying make better use of the entire roster. The time for trades and roster changes is the off-season, when ownership will hopefully take a pragmatic look at the leadership and future direction of this team. For right now, let’s work to win with what we have.

Then again, all of this is moot if the Padres continue to play as well as they have so far (and the last half of last year), and/or the Dodgers wake up and start playing to their potential.

The next two weeks are HUGE, no doubt. Two out of three vs. LA is a must, then 6-5 or 5-6 on the road trip gets us to A-S break in decent shape.

GO GIANTS!!

Right

Oh FS, that phrase is just a polite euphemism.

Whether the Giants are buyers gets determined in the next two series. I doubt they become sellers, because they don’t have that much to sell that they don’t want to keep.

Sansui-San’s Haiku Corner

Season on the brink
This series will determine
If we sell or buy

Voice of Reason

Fire Sabean, that’s because most reasonable fans have given up trying to talk sense to you.

And just a heads up.

The fair-weather groaners talking about a .500 club and fringe-contenders in the NL West, who are always heralding gloom and doom after a bad stretch and griping even in wins, good riddance.

The bandwagon doesn’t need or want you and you won’t be welcomed back.

The Giants are 40-34, still doing well. People seem to forget about that, even though they have been winning since 2009 season began, basically one and a half seasons now. It seems like few people have gone through a bad streak before, the sky is always falling, and if I were an archeologist sifting through the comments here since last season, I would think the Giants were 108-128 since 2009 started and not 128-108.

The Dodgers were flawed offensively, with an offense much under league average in 1965 and 1966, and yet they won the NL pennant both seasons with the best record in the NL. You don’t need to have a great offense to get into the playoffs when you have great pitching. And we have enough good pitching to last us the rest of this decade, at least.

And the Giants have great pitching because Sabean put that all together. Sabean. And you can’t rebuild all at once, it takes the prospects varying times to develop so you need to muddle through and stick to the plan, filling in with vets when you need to. Not every move will do well, so you have to look at the overall results, and I like what Sabean has done overall, he has built a winner.

Lincecum has pitched great for us now for many years but even the best have off days because he’s human.

Too bad fans don’t appreciate greatness, maybe it would have been better if we had traded him to the Blue Jays for Alex Rios as many here suggested, then maybe you would appreciate him more.

Voice of Reason

This board is utterly absurd.

One genius suggests the Giants go get Upton, as if that same mouth wouldn’t be swearing a blue streak the first time Bossman Junior dogged it in the expansive OF at AT&T.

Of course, the griper would just change screen names and begin blasting Sabean for acquiring Upton in the first place so there’s no reason not to urge going after a $10 million talent with a 10 cent brain.

Then someone else calls the pitching staff overrated and actually mentions Cain’s outing against the Astros as evidence.

See how it works?

Whine and moan like you have the answer and, if it works out, you look like really smart (to a bunch of anonymous strangers). If it doesn’t, there’s no accountability online so it doesn’t matter.

Unfortunately for all you cyber-GMs and managers, there is accountability in real-life, which I imagine is why you all play Einstein online…

San Jose Slim

Anybody else see Broxton blow that game last night? Is he an elite closer in your eyes Wilson haters? I find it funny how many people hate Brian Wilson & don’t appreciate him as a top 5 closer. Name 5 closers better………..

Syd Thrift

Alex, nice work as always, but if Torres’ hitting troubles are attributed to sore feet from foul tips, then how was he suddenly able to steal two bags? The truth of the matter is that Torres is having a dry spell at the plate for reasons other than his feet.

As for Lincecum, you don’t pay your ace $12-18 million a year to only be a cool-weather pitcher. We all love Tim, but if he can’t pitch in the heat, and if his mechanics are all screwed up whenever he does pitch in the heat, then the Giants better start thinking about where in the AL they can send him for two starting position players.

Look, between the Giants’ questionable decisions from years ago (Zito, Rowand), their questionable decisions from this year (extending Affeldt), and Lincecum’s second Cy Young award, their payroll and Neukom’s penny-pinching have limited what Sabean can really do this year. He’s actually done a good job of piecing together a passable team with the Huff, Uribe, and Burrell moves at low cost. But none of these are long-term answers. If their pitching goes south, this team is finished, and we’re seeing that now.

This stuff about players being tired was so predictable. Baggs wrote a blog in May about a discussion with Bochy in which the manager said, “We have plenty of days off, and it is early in the season, there is no need to rest anybody.” Great forward thinking from a guy who can barely fill out a line-up card.

cb

Bochy needs to stop tweaking the lineup. We need a set lineup and mix in here n there, not every day. Keep molina and rowand on bench and see wat happens from there. There will be games when we struggle as an offense with a great pitcher like lester on the mound. Use the lineup that works and all this mixing n matching, there is no rhythm in the offense. Small ball approach needs to come in effect and it starts with the manager. Bunt a man over with a runner on and no outs. Hit and run with someone like pablo or bengie up that will prevent double plays.

PK

Bochy needs to view the game as a fan and not a coach. If he were a fan he would have determined that Rowand and Molina ‘suck’ a long time ago. If he were a fan, he’d realize that there are a limited number of players on this team capable of getting a runner home from second base with zero outs and start bunting people over. But Bochy is a stubborn manager who seems to think his players are better than they really are. The hardest thing for me to watch over the last 2 months is Bochy continuing to give playing time to Rowand and Molina who are just stealing money from the owners and fans know that if any one of those two guys is at the plate with a runner on, that the result is going to kill any potential rally.

drunken stupor

Baggs/Alex/Whoever –

I don’t mean for this to light a fire underneath all the whiners, but in Buster Olney’s blog on the mothership, he polled a bunch of GM who ranked Brian Sabean as the most difficult GM with whom to trade. Is this a good thing where he refuses to budge and gets what he wants, or is this a bad thing, where some GMs will be more willing to explore options with other clubs?
Any thoughts?

cadan

he cant handle san francisco heat?! what the hell is he going to do on august road trips to st louis and such?

Voice of Reason

You people have got to be joking, right?

Sell off pieces? In June? Six games over .500, 4.5 out of first, 2.5 off the Wild Card?

Should they just give up b/c they aren’t “serious” World Series contenders?

Newsflash, on paper, nobody is a serious contender for a ring except Boston, New York, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. That’s it.

Everyone else in baseball and especially in the NL can be picked apart as easily as you “die-hards” pick apart this club.

Atlanta—Hanson’s getting torched at the moment, Chipper’s old, Prado’s playing out of his mind, Heyward’s a rookie so he’ll be useless at times, Glaus is fragile, Derek Lowe’s on the team, etc.

Mets—Davis is a rook, Reyes is fragile, Beltran’s coming back to take time away from Pagan, Santana is a shell of himself, Pelfrey is pitching over his head, etc.

Colorado and the Dodgers I assume you don’t need help with (injuries, total void after Billingsley/Kershaw, etc.).

The Giants are far from perfect, will struggle badly against good pitching, and will insist on playing empty AB from Molina/Rowand. So what, we’re all well aware of that.

Yet you people act as if dropping 2 of 3 to Boston (even losing key pieces left/right) is reason to panic.

I say again, if you can’t keep the faith through rough stretches, the bandwagon is better off without you.

Voice of Reason

Oops, forgot the Reds.

Their pitching is suspect, Rolen/Gomes are playing key roles and they can’t be trusted for a full season, and their closer’s having the worst year of his career (at least in recent memory).

San Jose Slim

This is when you know those casual fans have their panda hats on too tight. If you think the Giants being 6 games over 500 & winning 88 games last season is a sign of near greatness & a reason to be excited about our current leadership & where they are taking us, then you are not paying attention. This team is not an NL WEST contender. The Dodgers & Rockies will not play this bad all year. The Giants will finish in 4th place this season. They are so flawed up & down the lineup. Torres was a 10 year fringe MLB player & after a month of greatness people are acting as if he is a guaranteed cornerstone player for us & our leadoff man of the future. Odds are that Huff, Uribe & Torres will come back down to Earth. What is this offense gonna look like when that happens. It is funny how one + year of patchwork, winning baseball makes people blind to the fact that we have not had a consistent lineup in 3+years. Sabean has a 100+ million dollar payroll & people wanna act as if we should be happy with the bang he gets for his buck. No consistent everyday lineup & a love for overpaid, declining veterans. Does that sound like a formula for stability & greatness to you?

Rowand’s Gamertude

Voice of Reason and totalfan62 I appreciate that you keep beating your optimistic drums. I agree that with sports talk in general the negative is dwelled on FAR more than the positive. However, your analysis is being slightly tainted by your optimism.

Are the Giants a bad team? No. But are they honestly better than the Dodgers, Rockies and Padres at this point? I know everyone thinks the Padres are doing it with smoke and mirrors but you know what, they’re just like us and do it better. Timely pitching and hitting to go along with one superstar and a staff that gets results. I have attended half of the Giants v. Padres games this year and you know what, there’s a reason they’ve beaten us every time but once. Latos has for the most part equaled Lincecum and Gonzalez is far better than anyone we have. Their bullpen is twice as good as ours and I think they’re the lesser talented of the Rockies and Dodgers, which makes for a tough division.

Objective analysis says we’re a slightly better than .500 team poised to finish 3rd or 4th and contending enough where we’re never too far out of contention. Some people are happy with that and some aren’t which is pretty evident amongst this board.

I will say however that you guys are in the minority. If just being happy with this team because it is better than a majority of the teams since ’62 or whenever you’ve been fans that’s your choice, but yours alone. I think anyone who watches the Giants day in and day out with an objective lens realizes they’re an above average team that doesn’t quite have what it takes to reach the next level.

One large problem other than our bullpen is Sandoval, our best hitter from 2009 on pace for this:

.273 13 HR 67 RBI .746 OPS

Barring significant changes we all have a very good idea where this team is headed, some are willing to admit that and others aren’t.

Respectfully yours

If Bochy were to act like a fan during the game…

he would be drinking beers and wearing a hawaiin shirt, shorts, and sandals.

totalfan62

Wow, some great posts today. Whatever your take on what is wrong, or what we need to do in order to contend in the second half, the facts and opinions stated today are for the most part worthwhile and informative.

FIRE SABEAN

Love how people credit Sabean putting together the pitching staff when most of them are homegrown guys who Sabean didn’t even scout.

Oh, and if you watched that Boston series, you’d see just how much Theo Epstein outclasses Sabean. Boston=patient lineup that knows the strikezone. Giants=hackers who have no clue or idea up there. Plus Boston’s pitching is just as good if not better. Boston didn’t even have half of thier starters due to injury. They won 2 of 3 with backups!! If they had their full complement of starters, they would’ve swept us!!

Now the Giants next 7 games are against divisional opponents and we all know how the Giants do in their own division. What’s that old Tom Petty song? “Freeeeeee Fallllllin!!!!!!!!!

FIRE SABEAN

San Jose Slim and Rowand’s Gamertude, great posts and I agree! This team is falling fast and now we play the Dodgers who have our number!!! We’re destined for fourth place.

Oh, and Rowand admitted that he’s in full panic mode at the plate! How about that for a $60 million acquisition? Great move Sabean!!!!!!

Voice of Reason

Rowand’s Gamertude, that may be true, but your cynicism taints yours.

As does the group’s general propensity to fixate on every tiny flaw while ignoring the good (or chalking it up to luck that will end).

What exactly about the Rockies and Dodgers screams bounce back (I omitted the Padres b/c I’ve dismissed them until now, but—I agree—Gonzo and the pitching mean they’re for real).

The Dodgers literally have been “riding the hot hand” in the ROTATION and that’s excluding Vicente Padilla, who’is a nightmare if you have to rely on him as a No. 3. Matt Kemp has been a disaster (if he were a Giant, you’d be demanding he be sent down to the minors) and the fact that he’s taken it to the field indicates this stands a good chance of being a lost year for him.

The Rockies are in shambles injury-wise and Tulo has a dreaded hand/wrist injury. Furthermore, Jimenez will come back to earth b/c he has to (he’ll still be a top 5 pitcher, but that leaves plenty of room for regression) and the rest of that staff (bullpen included) isn’t exactly bullet-proof.

Could the Bums and Rox take off? Absolutely.

But could Torres keep this up for another couple months? Could Sandoval turn back into the .300 hitter he’s been? Could the bullpen rebound and the starting pitching be this excellent all year?

ABSOLUTELY.

There is no reason to believe otherwise.

You people come on here day after day after day and scream into cyberspace the same boring refrain. Woe is me, woe is me, Bochy’s an idiot, Sabean’s a bum, the offense stinks, the pitching can’t be perfect, and Molina/Rowand/insert slumping player sucks.

It’s no more “objective analysis” than mine or the others who remind you gloom-and-doomers that it’s a long season and there’s plenty of reason to believe.

Yet you act like yours is objective simply b/c the Internet draws unhappy and angry people so there’s more of you. Well, it’s not.

Objective analysis says exactly what I posted above—every contender is seriously flawed and especially the ones for the Wild Card. The Giants have glaring weaknesses and could fall out of the race by August.

But so could every team on that list.

I say again, what makes the other “fringe contenders” so much more reliable?

rpuck

Rowand’s Gamertude:

I like your gamertude. Well said.

With the way this team is structured, the only thing that will hoist them atop the division is a hot streak. A Chicago White Sox or Texas Rangers hot streak. Pitchers have to get hot and a couple bats have to get white hot while others just do their job. Doable.

However, in the mean time, it has been win a couple series, lose a couple series. Win some games at home, lose some games at the road. .500 ball.

Here’s hoping for that hot streak, because without it, 4th place is very doable.

barfighter

Giants/abes BASEBALL TORTURE ! NOTE TO LAZY KNBR HOSTS . EVERYONE KNOWS THAT YOU GET 99.9 PERCENT OF YOUR MATIERIAL OFF THESE NOBODY REMEMBERS BLOGS. GUESS THAT’S WHY G-RAD IS ENJOYING THE LAST DAYS. ALONG WHITH THE FOOLS IN THE MORNING, AND THE DUO THREE STOOGIES , LITTLE MAN, TALL ONE AND THE EVERSHRINKING 12:00 TO 4:00 SISTER- STATION,” LET’S JUST FORGET EVERTHING I PREVIOUSLY SAID IN MY LIFETIME flip flopper, DA MORON BRUCE”. The T is actually the only one I respect, in that KNB/F-ARCE. Says whats on his mind and couldn’t care less what the little razor boy says.

BARFIGHTER !

Sansui-san’s Haiku Corner

We may indeed suck!
BUT…today Dodgers in town
WAKE UP AND PLAY BALL!!!!

DProfessor

The critics are not saying that the team is bad. On the contrary. The pitching rotation is top-notched, this slump not withstanding.

Here is what we are saying (again):

The offense isn’t horrible but, as composed,it is not good enough to win a championship. And one more 2nd tier piece isn’t going to make the difference.

The difference is a player of Ryan Braun or A. Gonzalez’s calibre (though not necessarily those specific players, so calm down some of you). To get a high-calibre, young hitter, you’d have to part with at least one high caliber young pitcher and probably another high prospect.

Do you optimists realistically see that happening?

Since this team will not contend for a title, and Huff and Uribe will be FA’s next year, isn’t it better to trade them for some younger and promising players now? There is no guarantee that a compensation pick will be high enough to net a good draftee.

That’s the logic and the reality.

The team will still have a winning season because it is the pitching rotation plus Wilson—not the offense or Bochy—which is responsible for the winning record.

If Sabean can’t construct a true contender, then he should be replaced. Bochy should be fired regardless of Sabean’s fate. He is a poor manager for this era of baseball.

MelOtt511

Well, on my way to the yard to see Zito take down the Dodgers. I am one of the whiners on this board (about the fat kids – Molina and Pablo, Rowand, Rentawrek, etc). However, I really like this team as a whole. They were not too much fun to watch yesterday especially with Red Sox fans all over the place. But, overall, the pitching is great. We manufacture a run or two and win more than we lose. To be great, though, the pattern of just throwing old guys into the mix to see what happens has to stop. The Giants have always been one of the best in MLB at developing their own players. Look up at the retired numbers on the stadium wall, most of them were from a Giants’ farm system that is still stocked with talent. Bring up the kids and let them play into a championship. I will be there to root them on.

Ignatz

Pointless to argue if this is a team is contender or not, how would you really know? Every point with the Giant’s seems contestable.

Pick a player, any one of them, what do you really (I mean really!) know today? Is Timmy hurt, is Rowand slumping or just sucks, can Sandoval see pitches, is Torres hurt, is Molina playing with injuries, would Nate get better with everyday play, is Renteria any good now, what the heck is up with the bipolar bullpen, what about Ishikawa? the list goes on and on, but spring training was over long ago.

I don’t see another team out there that has this turmoil, unless there are a lot of injuries like the Red Sox, or flat-out crazies like Bradley, Zambrano, or Upton. Funny though, they all still seem to who their best players are…..

Bochy’s small sample size strategy has been successful in hiding the truth about this team – if you never play the same line-up / positions, how can you begin to determine what the true weaknesses are?

We’ll go into trading season with no clear idea what would help this team in August and September. So, surprise – we’ll get a bunch of moderately positive and negative trades…. Giant’s are mediocrity by design.

Call me a whiner if you want, but it’s really hard to see that anybody has anything solid to hang a hat on going into July.

I’ll follow them daily, but this strategy (or lack of) is maddening.

– Iggy

g maynes

Hi, Cut me a break. It is a long season. The Padreshave a wors tlineup then the Giants. Have been on a great streak due to execution and a strong bullpen./They havent the resources to make a deal at the break and their bullpen is used every evening.
The Dodgers are living on fumes Thier bullpen is over worked,Their starting staff consist of two good starters and who ever looked good in a bullpen session. They don!t have the resources to replace their over worked pen, with out wrecking theri lineup.
Colorado simply haven!t put it togethere, perhaps having to strike out kings at second and third, plus and over the hil lFirst Baseman have something to do with it. The giants are in better shape then most people think. The line up is better then a month a go and they can put together a deal for a reliever due to a good farm system.

Rowand’s Gamertude

Voice of Reason I plain and simply respectfully disagree. You can shout and whine in the forum all you want about the other teams and why we’re just as good, criticize “cyber” GMs, etc. etc. etc. You also need to stop putting words in other people’s mouths too. I said this team is a slightly above .500 team that will finish 3rd or 4th in the division and you can check back with me in September and feel free to BLAST me if I’m wrong. So reserve your “general propensity to fixate on every tiny flaw while ignoring the good” comments for others. I hope I’m wrong, but I’ve watched too much baseball to think the Giants are going to win the division because we all want them to and because it’s a mere possibility.

Instead of getting upset and going off every time someone criticizes the Giants and their holy front office, take some time to breathe and understand what exactly we are saying.

Just like DProf said: “The critics are not saying that the team is bad. On the CONTRARY. The pitching rotation is top-notched, this slump not withstanding. The offense isn’t horrible but, as composed,it is not good enough to win a championship. And one more 2nd tier piece isn’t going to make the difference.”

Why is that so hard to understand? If you disagree with it fine, but that’s YOUR opinion and there’s a good reason why you’re in the minority on that one both on these blogs and according to any objective statistical analysis regarding win projection. We all hope you’re right, but we all want the economy to improve and world peace to come, we don’t always get what we want though.

Feron Balenz

#36
I am not a huge Wilson fan, but one thing I have noticed, and this will sound like a homer, is that he doesn’t get many strike calls his way (eyes rolling all over). He does a great job painting the corners and almost never gets the strike call. Krukow has commented on this many times as well. I’m sure it ‘evens out’ as they say, but not really. Watch the video.

fablerace88

The Giants are exactly as advertised under the Sabean/Bochy tandem. Great starting pitching, a decent bullpen with an above average closer and an offense, with a couple of exceptions, is offensive. Way too many players that take pitches right down the middle and then swing at pitches not even close to being a strike. Add absolutely no speed and it isn’t pretty at times. The Red Sox were a good measuring stick for the Giants and it wasn’t pretty. They looked old and slow. With no days off till the All-star game, it could get ugly. I’m hoping I’m wrong. This is my team and will be my team till I go to that great baseball diamond in the sky. Like Kuiper says, “Giants baseball is torture”.

fablerace88

Here’s to hoping the Giants blend some youth into this team over the next couple of years because this plan ain’t happening. I’m trying hard to not be all gloom and doom. I’m just realistic. Bring up some young players and find out what they’ve got. If they can add a Sandaval and a Posey, there has to be more youngsters that could make an impact. They have to go that route in the near future.

fablerace88

After watching Rowand over the years, I’m shocked as to what has happened to him the last couple of years. He’s always been a good team player who would give you a little power and speed with a great work ethic. Right now he’s just trying way too hard. He needs to relax and quit trying to live up to the money part of the deal. Kind of like Zito did.

fablerace88

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! No, that’s a birdseye view of a pigeons revenge. Kind of like the worm looking out of the bird’s arse and saying, “you wouldn’t s()t me, would you”?